Pick Up Sticks

TGIF

TGIF...although it probably won't seem much different than Thursday.

I need to find ways to amuse myself.  I have seen lots of my knitting friends talk about new projects and how much they are getting done.  But I have barely knit a stitch. I think I need to find just the right project. 

For I am working a lot, reading a lot, binge watching Ozark, getting in daily exercise and jumping on the sourdough bandwagon.  I have always been intrigued by sourdough but thought you had to get starter from another baker.  I googled this last weekend and found that you can start your own.  Mine has been fermenting for 5 days now.  I was shocked to see how quickly it started to develop bubbles which I guess is a good sign for a starter.  

I am going to use some tomorrow to make sourdough blueberry muffins then will feed one more time and bake bread on Sunday.

Wish me luck!

 

 

 

Day 20

Anyone else counting the days?  I am sure we all are.  It is so unreal. I have stopped watching the updates in the news after our governor said in a news conference "There are some people you will never see again."  Seriously - was that really needed?  People are already in a panic and that did not help.

I am on Day 14 of working from home. 13 of those I was home alone all day, but my husband has now been sent home to work.  So we have set up two separate areas to work.  I am in the guest room and he is in the den. First day went fine; we hardly saw one another except at lunch.  Work is busy. Since I have HR duties beyond my fiscal duties it has been fun trying to navigate all the new info related to expanded FMLA, FFCRA and now the CARES Act.  

The 31st was my boss' last day. How anti-climactic?  We will celebrate him at a later time but how sad to get no real send off - and during a terribly stressful time.  He left handmade gifts for all of us. He is a wood turner and made candle holders for all of us. A few years ago he made me a bowl. His work is amazing.

Stay safe and healthy!

 

It's Been a While

It's been quite a while...but I'm here, we are healthy and trying to navigate all of the craziness in the world right now.

As everyone, my days are really different right now. I am working remotely - about 90% - with at least once or twice a week running into the office to scan invoices to our bookkeeper, printing checks, and check on the building. My husband is still going into the office but working in isolation there as much as possible.

I work really well remotely and honestly I am finding I am enjoying it.  No office drama, no loud co-workers, no commute.

I've read that the "quarantine 15" will be the new "freshman 15". I REFUSE to let that happen. We have a stocked pantry - normal stock up nothing crazy.  But we do not have many snacks - except fruit and nuts.   I am using this time as a reset.  To get back on track, investing my commute time into some self-care time instead.  Four mornings a week I am working out - weights and HIIT for 40 minutes.  Any sunny day I am walking after work. It is easy to do while social distancing as we live near a Penn State campus that is deserted. The fact that the time changed has been really helpful. Every hour I am getting up and walking around the house.  I decided to do this after one of the days I worked from home I had under 1000- steps.  That was a rude awakening!

We are cooking healthy meals, getting lots of fresh air, working in the yard, listening to music, and reading a lot.

And we worry - about our parents (mine are 9 hours away, my husband's dad is in assisted living which is quarantined), our kids and their families are 5 and 3 hours away.  We are all doing our best to stay in touch.

This is our new normal.

As the PA Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine says "Stay Calm, Stay Home, Stay Safe".  Her daily press conferences have been a calming part of the day despite the terrible news she is delivering.  She is a breath of fresh air in the craziest of the media.

Stay healthy everyone.

Sunday Evening

 

Eeking out every last bit of the weekend. Not much of a weekend as I worked both days...but it's a gorgeous evening and I'm going to just sit here and read a bit. The weekend started great on Friday night with pizza and drinks on the deck with neighbors who have become friends. We always laugh a lot when together! And is ending here on Sunday with the birds chattering away, cicadas loudly buzzing, beautiful light as the day becomes evening...and a wonderful book.

Reading Harry's Trees and loving it!

3 years - Really?!?!?

I knew I hadn't blogged in a while, but I never thought it had been three years. So much has happened. I think I got tired of blogging because so many blogs only show the "good side" of life. But life isn't always perfect. Sometimes it is ugly and hard.  I also found myself blogging to keep up with the cool crowd - joining in with similar posts and trying to keep up.

I know I have said this before but I really didn't start blogging to be part of the cool crowd.  I have always loved to write and keep journals and felt blogging was a great way to keep track of life - with pictures - while not having to scrapbook.

So here I am back at it.  

And I am trying to get back on track - in life in general.

Last year was hard - really hard.  My mother was diagnosed with cancer.  My parents don't live near me - they are 9 hours away.  It was hard not to be there to help on a regular basis.  I was there for her surgery and every few weeks after that.  But it was unbearably hard not to be there more often.  She had several months of chemo and as of today is doing really well.

But also during that time my job got out of control.  I always have complained about the really long hours I worked but last summer hit an all time high.  I found myself working 7 days a week, 65+ hours a week.  I get paid for 35 hours a week.  I nearly had a nervous breakdown.  Seriously - I don't think anyone knew the deep, darkness I felt I was in. I regularly cried on my way to and from work.  I felt like all I did was work, eat (way too much) and sleep.  I was still working out with a trainer 2 nights a week but I was eating everything in sight and my weight slowly crept up.  In March of this year I stopped working out.  My knees and joints ached - probably from the extra weight, sitting too much and the crappy food I was eating.  Inflammation is not just the buzz word of the season; it is debilitating. 

Earlier this spring I finally said to my boss - This has to stop!  While I have said this before and he recognized there was a problem at work, this time I pushed, and pushed, and pushed back some more. While I did not threaten to leave I think he realized that is where I was headed. 

Long story short there is light at the end of the tunnel.  I work for a nonprofit.  I am the controller for a large statewide program that funds 14 other programs across the state.  I do the accounting, grant  writing/management, payroll, HR and admin for my organization but also another program we fund.  Their accounting has gotten more challenging and time consuming as they have diversified their funding. They are in the process of hiring their own controller.  This means my workload will only be for the main nonprofit I work for. So maybe for the first time in 8 years I will have a normal workload and somewhat normal hours. 

I am giddy!  Seriously giddy.  I am also looking at it as an opportunity to take back my life - in lots of ways. If you have never been overwhelmed with life - like really overwhelmed on a daily basis - you might not understand where I am coming from.  I know lots of people work long hours.  But I had gotten to the point where I was drowning - barely holding my head above water.  And it affected every aspect of my life.  I became disorganized - at work, at home, in everything I was doing.  My house is a mess.  If you came to my house you wouldn't see that because the 'public' parts of my house are neat and clean. But our bedroom and my craftroom are cluttered.  A cluttered bedroom is not a good thing. I am not sleeping well.  Either I wake up at 3 am wide awake thinking about what needs to be done or I am in a deep, disturbed sleep from which I wake up feeling groggy - almost like a hangover. I am eating really crappy - really crappy. I can't focus. It is a vicious, ugly circle.

So my goals are to slowly take back my life not waiting until the change at work is complete. I started getting up earlier a few weeks ago and working out on my own.  Slowly getting back to lifting weights and yoga and stretches.

I have been doing some research since last fall about eating better and looking into a vegetarian way of eating.  I have read a lot about it.  Books by Dr. Furhman (Eat to Live), Rip Esstelyn (Engine 2), Dr. McDougal, and more.  The science behind it all is so sound and makes so much sense.  I have gone weeks eating this way and feel great - fog lifted.  But then stress gets the best of me and I slip back into old habits. My old habits include binge eating and sneak eating.  My husband - who has always been supportive - says he never sees me overeat.  Yep - because I am a sneak eater.  Have been since I was a kid.  My sister and I both were.  I was a terribly skinny kid.  My mother was always trying to lose weight - despite not really being overweight.  When she went on a diet the whole family did.  My sister and I would sneak snacks.  This got easier to do when we were older and could drive.  And while this never caught up with me and made me gain weight as a teen and young adult, it did in my 30s.

So today I start my journey again to eating healthier and taking my life back.  I say this as I sit at work taking a short break.  Yep on a Sunday; after working 9 hours yesterday.  But I still feel like I am on the way to making changes.  Yesterday I ate goldfish crackers and almonds for lunch.  This morning as I was leaving for work I threw frozen veggies and brown rice into a container for lunch.  Progress!

I plan to blog more. No set schedule. Not joining in with the cool kids posts. I want to journal my progress, my crafting, my gardening...just regular life...just for me.  And sometimes it will be ugly. But it will be real. And hopefully it will help me to see patterns, and progress towards a better, healthier life. And maybe it will help someone else.  Maybe they can see that life is flawed and hard but there are ways to get past it and still move forward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 on Tuesday

Carole's prompt for 10 on Tuesday this week is 10 Things You Miss  About Your Home When You Are Away.

We have been taking lots of long weekends away - for camping, kayaking and visiting our sons, DILs and grands.  While I love to travel I am definitely a homebody and so look forward to being home.  Here is what I miss most about home:

• My own bed.  I seriously love our bed.  We bought a new king sized bed a few years ago and I simply adore the mattress on this bed.  It envelopes you when you crawl into it.  While I sometimes find a hotel bed that is comfortable there is nothing like sleeping in your own bed. I tend to crawl into bed at night and sink into it and say "Bed is good".  Every night - ask my husband.
• Our dog.  While I complain about this little bundle of fur I do miss his sweet face when we are gone.  I don't miss sleeping without him in the bed while we are gone or his frequent accidents (he's getting old) but I do miss his unconditional love.
• Cooking in my kitchen.  While we do some cooking when we camp I love to cook and having my full kitchen available is wonderful.  
• Eating at home vs. eating out.  We eat healthier at home - enough said.
• A dry towel.  This comes from our last camping trip where the first half of the trip spend in NH had one day of rain but because we were in the deep woods nothing seemed to dry out - especially our towels.
• My laundry room.  Having the ability to do laundry whenever I want is a luxury.
• Walking around barefoot.  At home I am all about being barefoot.  Hotel floors creep me out - think about all of the other bare feet who have walked on that floor - YUCK! And it is almost impossible to go barefoot while camping.
• My closet - having options, not just stuck with what you packed.  I tend to over pack and then still find I packed too many tops and not enough bottoms. 
• Knitting options - no matter how well I plan and take multiple projects I find myself not having the right needles or notions or that I have packed projects that I don't feel like knitting right now.  access to my stash and supplies is so nice!
• Just being at home - as I said I am a homebody.  I love to be home. I love to putter around the house and garden, sit on the deck, light a candle, walk the neighborhood.  Love to be home!

 

 

Weekending

 

 

This was an exhausting weekend. I spent Saturday doing yard work for 3 hours then painting.

We are in the midst of a home renovation...one that is taking way too long. Our contractor is a friend of ours. Because of this it is easy to allow him free access to the house while we're at work. He lets our dog out during the day when he's working. But he also isn't a fast worker...he has his own pace of life...one that has gotten slower as he has back issues. 

Our house is tiny and for most of the 30 years we've owned it the basement was pretty much not usable as it was damp...very damp. Last year we put a small fortune into waterproofing the basement. And after a year of being dry we decided to renovate the space into a family room with a bar, added a full bath, and added two rooms - a laundry room and storage room. Since our house only had one bath this added space was very welcome - especially with our growing family. 

This project was supposed to be done weeks ago. We are hosting a picnic this coming weekend and have a ton of family who are supposed to be staying over. If this space isn't at least partially done I'm not sure what we are going to do. The bathroom is pretty much done. I painted the walls this weekend. Only the ceiling needs to be primed and painted. We need to put up accessories - shower rod and curtain, TP holder, towel holders, etc. The built in cabinets are sitting in place but won't be completely finished. I also painted walls in the family room. Did I mention I am exhausted? Hubby has been staining molding and the wood around his bar. These are all things we were supposed to do as part of the work. 

But we have compromised on what MUST be done by Weds. of this week - like flooring. Yep - flooring isn't done yet. Sigh.... Flooring and the door to the bathroom are items that must be completed. 

This will give us time to move in furniture and storage cabinets. The storage cabinets hold all of the items that right now are sitting in our guest room. Did I say we are having a ton of people staying next weekend?  And then unfortunately after Labor Day the contractor will have to come back and finish all of the molding, 2 additional doors, and refinish the steps. 

I am so ready for this project to be done.

 

(The picture above is one of the walls. Yes the wall color looks to be mustard yellow but after a second coat it has dried much darker...and is the caramel color it is supposed to be...thank goodness)

Weekend Cooking

I've said this a million times on the blog - because I work really long hours during the week (hello - 60 hours minimum) I tend to cook on Sunday for the week.  If I didn't we would either eat out a lot or not eat until 9 pm - neither which are very healthy.  I am lucky that my husband doesn't mind leftovers - because essentially that is what it ends up being - leftovers from my cooking marathons on Sunday. I am also lucky he doesn't mind eating the same thing multiple times during the week.

There are not too many things I am rigid about but meal planning and grocery shopping are two I am - mostly because I need both to be efficient.  I plan meals based on what's on sale, what's in season and what's our schedule for the week like.  I write a tentative meal list - making changes if I find something on sale while shopping.  I also make my grocery lists based on the aisles of the store - I know a bit strange - but this makes grocery shopping much more efficient.  And since I hate shopping - of any kind - efficiency is the key.

This past weekend I had gotten some lovely huge peppers and patty pan squash from the local farm stand. Stuffing them for several meals this week sounded really good.  Growing up my mom stuffed peppers the traditional way - with ground beef and rice.  This is how my husband remembers them from his mom as well.  When I started making these a few years ago I wanted something different. Mine have a Mexican flair to them. 

Here is my 'recipe':

• 3 large bell peppers - cut lengthwise with seeds removed.  I know most people take the tops off but this makes more shallow 'boats' that cook faster and the portion size isn't as large.
• 1 lb. ground chicken thighs - although beef or turkey would work just as well.
• Any combo of veggies you like - I use about 2-3 cups of diced veggies and change it up depending on what I have on hand - carrots, peppers, onions, zucchini, peas, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, potatoes (gold or sweet or a combo). Dice all about the same size so they cook evenly.
• 1 tbs of olive oil
• 1 cup salsa
• Cumin, chili powder, garlic, smoked paprika, red chili flakes

Brown ground meat until fully cooked. Remove from pan and set aside. Drain any grease from pan.  Add a small amount of olive oil to pan.  Add diced veggies and cook until slightly softened - but still have a bite to them.  Stir meat back in.  Add spices.  I don't measure.  I start with about 1 tbs. chili pepper, 2 tsps. each of cumin and garlic, 1 tsp. of smoked paprika and a dash of red chili flakes.  I mix this all together and let it cook a bit to meld the flavors.  Then taste it.  Add more spices if you think it's too bland. We like it spicy!

Put peppers in the bottom of a casserole dish.  Fill each one with the mix to overflowing.  Typically there is some leftover - it freezes fine for a quick meal later that can be added to a taco salad or taco shell.  Add salsa to the bottom of the casserole dish along with about 1/2 - 1 cup of water.  This takes the place of the tomato sauce in traditional stuffed peppers recipe. You really only want it to cover the bottom of the casserole and create some steam when baking.

Cover casserole with foil.  Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until peppers are softened. Spoon sauce in bottom over peppers when serving. These reheat very nicely and fit into my gluten-free eating. If you use a salsa with no added sugar then this fits into a Whole 30 or Paleo style diet.  If you are eating low-carb you could leave out the potatoes. I only use about 1 small Yukon gold or half a sweet potato.

I've used the same filling for patty pan squash or even zucchini.  When I use the squash I scoop out the insides and add them to the veggies I sauté so nothing goes to waste.

Typically I make one or two meals that can be eaten twice each.  Or as in the case this week I made the stuffed peppers and squash and plan one night for a crockpot meal.  I also cut up all the veggies for salads for lunches this week.  Since I was already chopping veggies for meal prep this made it easy.

This really doesn't take much time on a Sunday.  Typically an hour of prep and some additional time for cooking.  During the winter months I tend to make some things in bulk - like gluten-free meatballs or soups or chili - that can be frozen and kept for a really easy dinner in the future.

 

Weekending

I so look forward to weekends - especially ones where every minute isn't busy. With our sons living in opposite directions (one 3 hours NE and one 4.5 hours south) we are seeing lots of travel on weekends in our future.  But this weekend we were home - without a long list of to-do's.  And it was heavenly - although I should have been a wee bit more productive.

Friday we typically have happy hour at home on our deck but our new local brewery - Tattered Flag Brewery - was open and we knew it was going to be too hot to sit outside at home. We headed down for a drink and a snack.  Nothing like eating chips and salsa for dinner.  I tried one of their mojitos and while it was good I like my own better as this was really super sweet.  Plus expensive!

Saturday we were up early and on the road to a lake about an hour east of us. We wanted to get on the water before the heat of the day started.  It was 68 degrees when we left at 7 am. We put in the water about 8:15 am at Blue Marsh Lake and headed up the Tulpehocken Creek.  While the water was very murky we had fun exploring the creek and saw tons of great blue herons, ducks, turtles and a snowy heron.  Three hours on the water was just enough.  We'll go back there again.

On the drive to the lake we saw several signs that caught our eye - winery, pick your own blackberries and a farm stand with ice cream. While we were not dressed for a wine tasting we thought we would try to hit up the other two places on the way back through.  But when we got off the water it was 86 degrees and neither one of us wanted to try and pick berries - although I am regretting that decision now.  We did stop for an ice cream - teaberry for him and blackberry for me.  Honestly - the ice cream was just ok and not worth the calories.

Do you see a trend here?  Really terrible eating this weekend - chips and salsa for Friday dinner and ice cream for Saturday lunch. I redeemed my eating by making fish on Saturday with a stir fry of really lovely veggies.  On the fish I used up the last of a spice blend I really like from Penzey's - Arizona Dreaming.  I cooked the fish in a pan with a bit of olive oil and thinly sliced peppers along with a generous sprinkling of the spice blend.  It was wonderful - if I do say so myself! Sunday we had salmon for dinner with sugar snap peas and tiny red potatoes from my garden.  And I made a big batch of stuffed peppers and stuffed patty pan squash for dinners this week.  Luckily my husband doesn't mind reheats. The stuffing I use is not the typical pepper stuffing of ground beef and rice.  I'll share my recipe another day.

The best part of the weekend was having our son, DIL and newest granddaughter stop on their way back through from vacation in SC.  We had their dogs part of the time while they were gone.  They stopped for a quick visit - just enough time to get in some baby snuggles.  I swear she grew since we saw her the weekend prior!

All in all a really nice weekend. 

Joining up with Karen for her weekending posts.

Apologies!!!

I typically do not go back and look at blog posts after published.  I use to get emails when someone commented but lately hadn't received any.  I honestly thought no one was reading and commenting since I am such a sporadic blogger.  Much to my embarrassment I glanced at old posts only to find so many lovely comments - especially on the post about our newest granddaughter.  

Accept my apologies!  I've changed my settings a bit to hopefully receive notifications again. And I have high hopes to blog more regularly.